History, doctrine, culture, books

Happy birthday, Policy, you are one year old today. In January I posted "Policy or Revelation?" which outlined the public timeline of the messy initial release of the Policy, along with links to relevant documents. Time for an update on the Policy. Maybe I'll do one every year until it dies.

Once upon a time, family law was a marginal legal topic that didn't make many headlines the way constitutional law or criminal law so often do. But gay marriage and Prop 8 have propelled family law and marriage to the legal center stage. In an odd parallel development, "the family" has, over the last few years, moved to the center of LDS doctrine and practice as well, with "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" being the most visible evidence of that change. We are living in an intersecting perfect storm of changing family law, family doctrine, and family practice. So we should learn some family law before the cyclone hits. Let's start with a current case.

From the Wikipedia entry, here's the background for the upcoming election fight over the fate of same-sex marriage in Maine.

A bill to allow same-sex marriage in Maine was signed into law on May 6, 2009. Maine is the fifth U.S. state to recognize same-sex marriages, and the second to do so through a legislative process rather than through a judicial ruling. The law would have taken effect on September 11, 2009, but will now be subject to a people's veto in Maine's November 3 elections.

Any similar attempt to intimidate and threaten a minority population in the United States would be instantly and roundly denounced, hounded by the MSM, and the cause they espoused would rightly suffer. The backers of same sex marriage who are working to defeat Prop 8 should condemn these extremists and assure the voting public that they are not connected with the No on 8 campaign.

Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of MormonismGivens and Grow's warts-and-all biography of this energetic missionary, author, and apostle whose LDS career spanned Joseph Smith's life, the emigration to Utah, and Brigham Young's early leadership of the Church in Utah. My Review